What kind of groups should I create?
What are the privacy settings for my group?
Why did you give so much power to the group creator?
If I give you an email address, will you spam me?
What will my friends see when I invite them?
What information of mine can anyone see?
What about Not Safe For Work (NSFW) links?
How do I keep track of all my conversations?
Why can't I change my user name?
Do you have a browser button to make it easier to share links?
Can I have more than one username?
I shared a link with a group that I didn't mean to. How can I change that?
Didn't see your question? Shoot an email to vinny@linkpasser.com.
Our website helps groups of people share links with each other. You (unless you're this guy) already share links with your friends by using email. We did too and we sort of thought email was a really dumb way to do it for a lot of reasons.
So, we created Linkpasser. Linkpasser helps you share and discuss links to news, videos, pictures and blogs with your different groups of friends. Want the whole story? See about us. Don't care about the whole story? Then just keep reading the FAQ's below.
You already send and receive links from your friends and families, but via email. However, there are a lot of reasons why you shouldn't email links to your friends, here are just a few:
Email Problem: You email your friends an awesome youtube video, but some of them are really busy at work and get annoyed and secretly start to hate you.
Linkpasser Solution: You share it with your friends via the group you created. They check it out when they get home that night and love the video. Hello, Mr. Popular.
Email Problem: You email one of your friends a hilarious but slightly offensive link. He carelessly forwards the email along, it eventually gets traced back to you and you get fired.
Linkpasser Solution: The links you share are not on your corporate email.
Email Problem: You email your friend a hilarious but totally not safe for work link. His company reads the email, and your friend gets fired. He's now waiting in your bedroom with a kinfe, completely drenched because he creepily walked to your place in the rain.
Linkpasser Solution: You share that link with the group instead of emailing it to them. He doesn't get fired (though you should probably get a new friend).
Email Problem: You find an awesome youtube video but only send it to a few friends because you don't want to spam too many people.
Linkpasser Solution: You create a group that includes a whole bunch of your friends. You are now getting awesome links from friends that you never got links from before! Also, you're now sharing your links with people who you never shared with before! Everyone's loving it.
Email Problem: Every time one of your friends has a comment about a link, you have to hear about it. In a whole new email.
Linkpasser Solution: Your friends can easily comment via the group page and you don't have to worry about spamming everyone with an email.
A link is the address (or URL) of a web page. It's the thing that starts with "http://". Here are some links: Youtube, CNN, google.
If you have not signed up for the site, go here. If you already signed up, go here. You can provide the url (the thing with http://), a title for the link, a description of the link and the groups that you want to share the link with.
A Linkpasser group is a private page for your friends, colleagues or those that share a similar interest. Members can share links to their favorite sites, comment on links put up by others in the group and invite people to join the group.
Right now, we're building new features to make our existing groups stronger. To keep us focused, we've decided to be invite-only for a while.
So to create a group, you'll need a Group Pass. So click here to join the queue.
Here are some of the most popular types of groups people create:
Every Linkpasser group is private. This means:
If you know the name of the group, you can search for that group and request to join it. You can also search for groups based on things you are interested in like technology or photography. If you find a group you like, you can request to join it.
Also, you can see what groups other people have joined. Click on a person's name and you'll see what groups he or she person belongs to (and has chosen to show).
Also, if you are popular enough, like a high-school quarterback, you can be referred by others. If a friend invites you to join a group, Linkpasser will email you an invitation. Click the link in the email to join. Don't expect to be this cool.
A group creator can also send you a special link that allows you to join the group automatically. If you click it, you will automatically be a member of the group.
Finally, you can just start your own group.
You can invite anyone including people who aren't on Linkpasser. But, that person has to be approved by the group creator before the invitation is sent. If the group creator is picky, you can include a message to the group creator in your invite explaining why your invite should be approved.
If you are the group creator, then your invites are automatically approved. On the Create a Group page, simply enter your friends' email addresses or Linkpasser usernames, and they will receive an invitation to you group.
Well, it's complicated but we wanted to prevent groups from self-destructing.
Let's say you create a group called "South Park" and invite some of your friends who are really into South Park to share news, videos and all other kinds of links about South Park. Well, the group is really good and people start to hear about it, a lot of people. If the group creator couldn't control who joined, then everyone would start joining and some people would join and contribute bad South Park links. So, now you are annoyed. But, even worse, a spammer gets on there and he starts to put up really bad spam links. Now, the group is full of spam and bad links. Sure, you can try to remove all of the bad members and we can help you with the spammers, but it's just going to get worse and worse...
While we will continue to research how groups interact and how to best structure the group creator's and member's rights, for now, we chose to give the group creator all the power. This way, if you create a group, it won't get messed up unless you mess it up. For more, check out A Groups Is Its Own Worst Enemy by Clay Shirky.
If you are the group creator, then your invites are automatically approved. On the Create a Group page, simply enter your friends' email addresses or Linkpasser usernames, and they will receive an invitation to you group.
We will never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever spam you. In fact, by using Linkpasser, you actually help reduce the number of emails you get! Instead of getting all those link forwards through email, you will get them all through your Linkpasser groups. That means, if you hate spam, you should create as many Linkpasser groups as possible. Want to know more? Check out our Privacy Policy.
Our system automatically deletes groups once they're empty (that is, there are no members). If you created the group, the easiest way to delete the group is to remove all members and then remove yourself. You are then The Destructor, which is a term we just made up.
Your friends receive a message from Linkpasser informing them you have invited them to join your group. The message will read:
Dear [Name of Friend]:
[Your Name] has invited you to join his Linkpasser Group, [Group Name]. On a Linkpasser group, you can share and discuss links to your favorite news, videos, pictures and blogs.
To view the group, click here: [link]
To learn more about the site, click here: [link]
Sincerely,
The Linkpasser team
You can also add a personal message when you send the invitation
Yes. You can keep non-members from knowing you've joined any group. Just check "hide" on your my groups page. Otherwise, people can see only the names and descriptions of the groups you've joined. Links you share to groups are visible only to members of those groups. Your password, email and links shared are always confidential. To find out more, check out our Privacy Policy.
Some links are probably better visited outside the office. When you share a link, you can check the "Not Safe For Work" box to give the group a heads up. On someone else's link, you can also click "Not Safe For Work?" in the comment box. In either case, a small "NSFW" will appear next to the link so your friends know what to expect.
My Chatter organizes everything for you. All comments made to links you shared, links you commented on, links you voted for, and links you viewed are displayed in My Chatter. On your left navigation bar, the number next to "my chatter" shows you how many new chatter items you have. We also sort your chatter conversations so the most recent are always on top.
We thought long and hard about this, but we think that changing names can change the community nature of the site. Also we're afraid folks might pull the trick from Ender's Game where you change your name to someone else's and say crazy things as a prank. Makes sense? No? Shoot us an email at vinny@linkpasser.com.
Stars are awarded to the members who shared the links with the most votes in the group. Orange means most votes in the past week, and gold means most all time.
We sure do. Once you install the button, you can click the "Linkpass it" on your browser and the page you're viewing will be automatically shared to Linkpasser. Select which groups you want to share to, and you'll be sent right back where you were.
Yes, but you have to have a unique email address for each one.
As many as you like! Hooray!
Go to my links and find the link that you accidentally shared with a group. You can also find the link by going to the group you accidentally shared the link with. Click on edit next to the link. Uncheck the box with the group you didn't want to share with and click on "Share".
That's not a question. But if you still have one, shoot us an email at vinny@linkpasser.com.
